


Never Start with a Waltz

by MyTurnOnHigh



Series: Learning to Dance [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Adult!Dipper, Bill's a jerk, Human!Bill, I'm Going to Hell, I'm Sorry, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, but really when isnt he?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-13
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-22 16:09:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3735190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyTurnOnHigh/pseuds/MyTurnOnHigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a horrible accident, Dipper is convinced his life is over. Needless to say, this was just the type of situation Bill Cipher had been waiting for and the two strike up yet another deal. Dipper gets his life back and Bill...? Well, Bill gets a partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

     Dipper Pines didn’t know what was happening in his life. One minute he was studying outside at a small cafe for finals and the next he was waking up in a hospital room. To be fair, there probably had been a good deal of minutes between those two events, but he was glad his brain had blacked out for them.

     Sure, he had questions about the events that landed here. But from the bits and pieces he had heard from his doctor and nurses it involved a pickup truck and some guy that had decided noon was a perfectly good time to start drinking.

     The sound of the beeping machines caught his attention and he glanced over at them. At least his vitals were strong. Maybe. He hoped. He had never really been one for medical shows.

     As Dipper went to shift slightly on the hospital bed, he noticed something odd. He was having a lot of trouble moving his legs. More than a lot. He actually couldn’t move them at all. Panic set in and as the adrenalin began to pump through his veins the beeps of the machine grew more frantic.

     Just as Dipper was about to look around for some sort of emergency call button, a nurse came hurrying into the room and went from between the machines to him.

     “Sir,” her voice was low and steady in an attempt to calm the younger man down, “you’ve been in a very bad accident.”

     “I know, but-!”

     “Sir.” This time her voice was sterner. “Please, try to relax. Your sister is on her way.” Before he got the chance to say anything else, the nurse took a syringe and pushed something through Dipper’s IV line.

     After that, it didn’t take any amount of time for his world to turn dark again.


	2. Alignment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I can't believe the response this story has already gotten with such a short prologue! Thanks guys, it's really keeping me motivated! I don't know exactly how fast the next chapter will be up, but from here out I'll be aiming for weekly updates depending on how my finals go. Thanks again, everyone!

     When he finally started to come to again, everything was hazy. Dipper groaned and tried to adjust his eyes from sleeping into something that could deal with the heavy florescent lighting.

     As he turned to look away from the lights, he saw the figure of someone sitting next to his bed. Their head was bowed, resting against the edge of the mattress, but the long locks of brown hair were a dead giveaway.

     “Mable?” His voice was low and scratchy, and he wasn’t sure his sister had heard him at first, but she quickly lifted her head to look back at her twin.

     “Dipper! You’re awake!” She was giving him a look that combined both her fear but also her relief and quickly stood up. “I’ll be right back! I’m going to go get your doctor.”

     “Mable, Mable wait-” Dipper once again didn’t have a chance to finish his statement before being left alone in his hospital room. Except, to be fair, he wasn’t sure if the nurse had exactly left him alone or not when she knocked him back out.

     A few moments later, Mable returned with a doctor and a nurse. The same nurse that Dipper had recognized from earlier. She was probably in her early thirties, but Dipper could tell she probably looked older than she really was. There were thin lines around her lips that were a dead giveaway for a smoking habit. Dipper almost found it funny how someone with a career in medicine could do that to themselves, but his attention quickly sifted to the doctor that he hadn’t seen before. The man was ancient. He had white hair that was slicked back to look professional and steely blue eyes that almost looked like they were bored.

     “Mr. Pines,” The doctor started talking as he pulled a pen out of his white overcoat, “It’s good to see you awake.” Dipper took a deep breath. He decided to not say anything about how he had actually woken up a while ago and just waited for the doctor to continue. “Do you know where you are?”

     “The hospital.” Dipper really didn’t like his voice right now. It had to sound like it had gone through a wood chipper and then been scrubbed down with iron wool. Hopefully that wasn’t going to last long.

     “Good. And do you know why you’re here?” The doctor got closer to Dipper and used what the he had previously thought was a pen to shine a light in his eyes. It was worse than the florescent lights had been. A warning would have been nice for that one.

     “Because a red pickup truck had it out for me.” Dipper muttered, starting to feel more annoyed with this entire situation, but the doctor just let out a hum in acknowledgement and nodded slightly at his response. It was clear to him that this doctor seemed to lack really any bedside manner, but Dipper figured that in an ER beggars couldn’t really be choosers. Not to mention he had been unconscious when they assigned him a doctor.

     “And you recognize who is here visiting with you?” The doctor removed the light from Dipper’s eyes and took a step back, waiting for Dipper to answer him. But it was such a dumb question. Of course Dipper recognized who was there. He had already said her name twice.

     But he narrowed his eyes in mock confusion and tilted his head slightly. “Grandma? Is that you?” He couldn’t help it. His frustration was getting the better of him. And a good jest at his sister’s expense helped a bit.

     Mable only laughed lightly and shook her head, fully aware her twin was just joking. “Yeah, he knows who I am. He was saying my name earlier.”

     The doctor let out a humorless laugh before shaking his head and looking back at Dipper with a sad smile. “Alright, well that’s good-”

     “When are we going to get to the whole ‘I can’t feel my legs’ part of this?” Everyone around him seemed to visibly tense after Dipper spoke, especially Mable. The doctor took a deep breath and nodded.

     “We were discussing with your sister earlier the best way to tell you. She said it would be best to just come out and say it.” The doctor paused and frowns momentarily. “Mr. Pines, when you were struck by the truck, your T11 and T12 vertebrae. You are going to be paralyzed from the waist down. I’m sorry.”

     Dipper felt his jaw clench. He had already figured out the paralyzed part on his own. He just wanted to know how long he was going to be like this. Why couldn’t the doctor have just skipped to that part?

     “Dipper,” Mable’s voice was quiet and he looked over at her. She knew what he was thinking and he didn’t like the way she was looking back at him. When he couldn’t take the look his sister was giving him anymore, he looked down at the IV in his hand and absentmindedly scratched at it.

     “That’s...not going to be something physical therapy is going to help with, huh?” Dipper didn’t even know if anyone could understand what he was saying he was so quiet. Either way, he wasn’t sure he even wanted the doctor to start speaking again right then, but there was a part of him that just needed to know for sure.

     With a heavy sighs, the doctor looked down and shook his head. “I’m sorry. You can try physical therapy and you might regain some feeling, but the chances of you being able to walking again are very slim.”

     Dipper nodded absent mindedly and decided to completely stop paying attention after that. He could vaguely hear Mable saying a few things to the doctor about how he should leave, but out of his peripheral vision he saw the nurse checking his vitals again. It didn’t take his sister long to usher her out of the room either. Dipper had never been so happy to have a stubborn sister in his life.

     He looked over at her and smiled weakly as she took a seat again next to his bed. She leaned over slightly and crossed her arms on top of the bed again, smiling brightly back up at him.

     “Don’t worry bro-bro. You know I’ve gotcha. Forget what that groucho said. We’ll get you up and going again soon.” Dipper couldn’t help but smile back more at Mable’s genuine optimism. She could always bring him back up no matter how bad the situation was and this just proved it.

     “You should be more excited about bedazzling my wheelchair.” Mable’s brow furrowed slightly, but she continued to keep on smiling. Honestly, he could tell she was just as upset about this as he was. Her smile wasn’t quite touching her eyes, but it didn’t bother him. Dipper was just happy to have a sister that was willing to pretend everything was okay even though it clearly wasn’t.

     “So,” Dipper tried to change the subject, “how long was I knocked out?” And he failed miserably at it, but more conversation was good. And the more he talked, the better his voice seemed to be sounding, so hey, he wasn’t going to complain.

     Mable made a face and looked over at the clock in Dipper’s room. “Well, it’s two p.m. now, so...three days.”

     Dipper widened his eyes in shock. “What?! There’s no way it’s been three days!”

     “Bro, you were hit head on by a truck. There’s even a saying about that.”

     “No, Mable, you don’t understand, if I’ve been out for three days, that would mean I missed my finals!” Mable’s brow furrowed and shook her head.

     “Dipper, you almost died and you’re worried about school?” Her voice was soft and it almost sounded hurt. It was making Dipper want to cringe and the disappointed look she was now giving him was not helping the situation at all.

     “I’m sorry.” Dipper muttered apologetically and looked away from his sister. “I know you’ve been worried about me, but...” he began to tail off and let out a small sigh. He wasn’t really sure where he was going to go with that. Mable was right. He could have died. He shouldn’t be worrying about school right now.

     “Can you just try and focus on resting for now so you can go home? For me?” Dipper slowly started to look back in Mable’s direction and gave her an apologetic look.

     “I’ll try. I promise.” A large smile spread across Mabel’s face as she squealed in delight. One of the nurses outside of Dipper’s room looked in and gave Mable a disapproving look before shaking her head and looking away. His sister’s enthusiasm along with the nurses disdain made Dipper laugh lightly.

     “Great!” Mable exclaimed as she finished catching her breath from her earlier zeal. “So, how about we just chill out for a bit now and watch some really crappy hospital cable?” She reached around Dipper to grab the universal hospital remote that controlled the TV and started flipping through the networks.

     Dipper laid his head back against his pillow and let out a soft sigh. Hopefully some of the mindless shows they’d watch would get his mind off of how completely derailed his life was now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would just like to add I am by no means a doctor and if anything about what I said in here was wrong, just let me know and I'll edit!


	3. Balance

             Three months came and went but Dipper was still not getting any better. Life in a wheelchair was just not his forte. If he wasn’t ramming himself into a wall or another person he was running into stairs with no handicap access. Not to mention he could no long go out into the woods and just hike for hours.

             Once he realized just how limited he was, Dipper began to haul himself up in his apartment and refused to leave. When Mable found out he was doing this he never thought he’d hear the end of it from her. She yelled at him over the phone for a good ten minutes about how he needed to get sun and fresh-air before.

             That had actually become a daily routine of Mable’s. She’d call, ask Dipper how he was feeling and then yell at him for not doing more. He couldn’t blame her for getting frustrated with him though. Dipper knew what he was doing wasn’t healthy, but he couldn’t really help it. If he went outside he’d hit one obstacle after another and then he’d be the one not only frustrated, but also embarrassed. At least in his apartment he still felt like he some semblance of control over his life even if it make him more depressed.

             All he really did anymore was sit by his balcony window and watch outside. Even now that’s what he was doing. But it gave him way too much time to think about everything. He had no idea how he was ever going to get used to living like this. It wasn’t like he even wanted to do anything anymore really.

             Sure, he could sign up for more classes, but then he’d have to somehow find a way to get to his school. Yes, there were online courses, but then he ran the risk of having to go to campus to meet with a professor or take a test. It wasn’t exactly worth it in his opinion. And neither was his life anymore.

             Then there was the issue with money. Dipper hadn’t been able to pay rent in a month. He knew if he didn’t cough up the cash soon he’d be evicted. Then he’d have to move back in with Mable and Grunkle Stan at the Mystery Shack.

             But maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing. Ever since he moved further into the city he had missed them immensely. Especially since Stan was getting older.

             That had been why the two of them had moved back to Gravity Falls in the first place. As much as Grunkle Stan didn’t want to admit it, he needed the help. It was an easy decision for Mable and him to make, especially since she was a freelance artist and could work from anywhere.

             But then Dipper got offered a scholarship at Oregon State University and had to move farther way from Gravity falls. He always felt bad about leaving Mable and Grunkle Stan behind. No matter how many times his sister told him they were okay, there was still a part of him that felt like he shouldn’t have left.

            However, the big issue with moving back was still his damn wheelchair. The Mystery Shack was not equipped to handle someone without functioning legs. Sure, they had a handicap ramp that Stan had begrudgingly put in to keep the Shack up to code, but that was about it. There was still the issue of the rocky terrain and no way for Dipper to get upstairs to the bedrooms.

            No matter what way he looked at it he was screwed. He just wished there was a way for him to get his life back on the track it was before this all happened.

            “Hey, did I hear someone say something about a wish?” Dipper furrowed his brow in confusion at the disembodied voice. Did he forget to turn the TV off again?

            “No kid, you didn’t. But you did forget the part about buying gold, didn’t yah? Woulda solved a lot the problems you’re having right now it seems.” Crap. There was only one entity that Dipper knew of that talked like that. It made him tense up as he quickly started looking around his apartment to see where the voice was coming from. When he saw no one, Dipper was about to add hearing things to the list of everything wrong with him until he turned his head back around and saw Bill’s floating triangular shape hovering right in front of his face.

            “HOLY-” He didn’t mean to shove himself so far back up in his wheel chair that it tipped over. He really didn’t. But Dipper went crashing to the floor anyway, groaning loudly in pain. He even heard Bill let out a low hiss as he watched Dipper’s predicament.

            “Ooo you might want to learn how to work that thing better, Pine Tree.” Dipper let out a frustrated grunt before pulling himself out from under his tipped over wheelchair to look up and glare darkly at Bill.

            “Why are you here? Or, better yet, _how_ are you here? Last time I checked, I wasn’t dreaming.”

            “Kid, you dozed off in that chair of yours about twenty minutes ago, but I’ve been watching you brood for a while now.” Of course he had been watching him this whole time. Of course Dipper hadn’t noticed the world looking even duller. Of, fucking, course. That made perfect sense. Dipper rolled his eyes and pushed himself up more so that he was sitting up against the wall.

            “What do you want, Bill?” Dipper allowed his irritation with the situation drip into the tone of his voice as he stared down the triangular dream demon. Asleep or not, he was not in the mood to mess with Bill of all people. Not that Bill even really counted as a person, but that seemed like a moot point.  

            Bill raised his claw arms and his eye flashed brightly. “I...am here to offer you a deal, kid!”

            “No thanks.”  Dipper said automatically and looked away from the floating, triangular entity. Bill swooped down closer to his face again and narrowed his singular eye. The dream demon’s black cane appeared in his hand and he jabbed it under Dipper’s chin roughly.

            “Hear me out, Pine Tree! I think you’ll really enjoy this one!” The demon’s voice was cheery as always as he floated backwards from Dipper’s face.

            “So, you could say that I’ve noticed that you are in quite the predicament now that your gangly, feeble, human legs don’t seem to work anymore.” As Bill said this, Dipper felt his own eyes narrow into a glare as he watched the demon float in a carefree manner. He knew that if Bill could smirk right then, he would. “I can fix that for you.”

             Dipper tensed as Bill finished talking and he gripped at the muted grey rug underneath him. He looked away from the dream demon again and shook his head. There was no way he was going to fall for another one of Bill’s deals. For all he knew, it meant Bill would just attach someone else’s torso onto his body or something horrifying like that.

             But it was still a tempting offer and Dipper hated himself for thinking that, but if he could walk again all his problems would be solved. There was still the issue of the deal though. Regardless of how Bill made it so he could walk again, there was still the issue of the demon wanting something in return.

             Dipper sighed and looked back at Bill who was now examining his clawed digits. “Right, and what exactly would you want out of this deal?” Dipper couldn’t even believe he was even humoring the demon with this, but there was a part of him that wanted to know exactly what the terms of Bill’s deal were.

             “That’s the best part, kid!” Bill said and threw his arms up in the air. “All I want from you is a partner!”

             Dipper furrowed his brow. “I know what you’re doing. You’re rephrasing the terms of our other deal. You just want a partner so you can have a body whenever you want! I’m not letting you do that-”

             “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Pine Tree! You’re thinking way too cryptically here. If I wanted a _puppet_ I would say so. A partner means someone equal. We’d be working together! No one is in charge of or in control of the other.” Bill crossed his arms in a satisfied manner and leaned back slightly into a lounging position.

             As Dipper continued to contemplate the terms of Bill’s new deal, he kept running different scenarios through his head of just exactly how the dream demon could be screwing him over. What if Bill wanted to turn him into some weird creature, demon, thing like he was? Or what if being Bill’s partner meant he could never say no to him?

            “Kid,” Bill said, sounding exasperated, “in case you forgot, I can literally hear your thoughts in here, so, to answer your questions, no, I would never change you into a demon. You meatbags don’t deserve that power. And two, being partners means compromising! Neither one of us would have the power to make the other to say yes to everything! As a matter of fact, you can tell me ‘no’ as much as you like.” Well that part sounded appealing to Dipper at least. “So, what do you say, Pine Tree? Do we have a deal?” Bill held his hand out to Dipper, the telltale blue flame glowing and waiting to be extinguished by the deal’s acceptance.

            As Dipper watched the flame dance around he thought about his options. He could decline Bill’s deal, but that would mean going back to his rather depressing life with the now added addition of a pissed off dream demon. Or, he could accept Bill’s deal and have his legs back, but then he’d still be stuck with Bill. But at least a regular Bill was better than a pissed off one. Right?

            Dipper let out a sigh and looked Bill square in his eye, glaring lightly. “If I make this deal, there better be no funny business. No...taking someone else’s legs or anything like that.” The least he could do was make sure Bill wouldn’t screw anyone else over with this deal.

            The dream demon’s eye rolled as he bobbed up and down a bit in agreement. “Yeah, sure, kid. Whatever. Ruin all the fun why don’t cha? But if that’s what it takes...” Bill trailed off and the blue flame grew larger as he moved his hand closer to Dipper.

           Dipper continued to stare at Bill’s claws for a moment before finally answering the demon. “Fine, Bill. You have a deal.” He then took Bill’s hand in his own and clasped onto it tightly. It was then Dipper’s entire world was engulfed with white.


End file.
